Searching for Slovenian roots – Bill 3

Slovenian emigrants in United States immigration records

About 40 percent of all current U.S. citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors in records of Ellis Island federal immigration station, which served for more than 60 years as the main entry point (1892 – 1954). Millions of newly arrived immigrants passed through the station during that time. Saloon, cabin, and steerage aliens were required to be completely manifested upon arrival based on the regulations of the Secretary of the Tresury of the United States under Act of Congres. Before World War I people emigrated from Europe mainly from economical reasons, so they usually passed the Atlantic ocean as steerage passangers.

The peak years of Ellis Island’s operation were from 1900 to 1914, when some 5,000 to 10,000 people passed through the immigration station. They were medicaly and legaly inspected to determine if they were fit for entry into the United States. Approximately 80 percent successfully passed through in a matter of hours, but others could be detained for days or weeks.

The Commanding Officer of any vessel having alien passangers on board had to declare to the immigration officer upon arrival at a port of Unated States prescribed data, which have been made available to the public since 2001. Some data from ‘Manifest of Alien Passangers for Immigration Officer’ are available in a searcable database, but much more can be investigated from scanned millions of immigrant arrival records:

Coloumn of Ship manifest / Database
01 List or Manifest of Alien Passangers for Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival / (A copy *.jpg)
02 Arriving at port of _____ / Name of the port
03 Arriving date__ / Date of Arrival
04 The sheet for steerage passangers / Ship of Travel
1 No. on List / Manifest Line Number
2 Name in Full / First Name – Last Name
3 Age ( Years, Months) / Age at Arrival
4 Sex / Gender
5 Married or Single / Marital Status
6 Calling or Occupation
7 Able to Read / Write
8 Nationality (Country of which citizen or Subject.) / Ethnicity
9 Race or People
10 Last residence (Last permanent residence. Country and City or Town) / Last Place of Residence
11 Final destination (State, City, or Town)
12 Whether having a ticket for such final destination.
13 By whom was passage paid?
14 Whether in possesion of $50, and if less, how much?
15 Whether ever before in United States; and if so, when (year/ period) and where?
16 Whether going to join a relative or friend; and if so, what relative or freind, and his name and complete address
17 Ever in prison or …house or institution for care and treatment of… or supported by charity? If so, which?
18 Whether a polygamist?
19 Whether an Anarchist?
20 Whether…?
21(23*) Condition of Health. Mental and Physical.
22(24*) Deformed or crippled. Nature, lenght of time, and cause.
*SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION REQUIRED BY NATURALIZATION ACT APPROVED
IN 29 June 1906
25 Height (Feet. Inches. )
26 Complexion
27 Color of / Eyes. Hair.
28 Marks of identification
29 Place of birth / Country. City or Town.

In immigrations records Slovenians have very rarely declared themselves to be of Krain nationality, although this was synonymous for ‘the Slovenian’. Most often they were recorded as from Austria, or after 1919 from Yougoslavia, but many times they simply told the last country they leaved from (for example Germany). Krain is nowadays south-western Slovenia (central European Union), but until 1919 it was a part of Austria-Hungary monarchy. Surprisingly the name of passanger was recorder 100 percent correctly: Andrej Praznik (25, from Velike Lasce; single, labourer, not able to read&write), who arrived on May 02, 1899 from port Bremen. He declared that he is going to go to St. Louis to an acquaintance (Josef Praznik, 42, immigrated already in 1892, another Josef Praznik, 29, in 1893). From ‘Manifest of Alien Passangers for Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival’ can be seen, that he travelled with other Krein people from Austrian monarchy, whose names and places should read correctly:

Marolt Marija (19, from Velike Lašče; single, no occupation, not able to read&write);

Marolt Josef (34, from Velike Lašče; married, labourer, not able to read&write);

Praznik Josefa (22, from Rašica; single, no occupation, not able to read&write);

Tomšič Jože (32, from Velike Lašče; married, labourer, not able to read&write);

Ivanc Franz (42, from Pusec = Pušče/Lužarji; married, labourer, not able to read&write).

US Census 1920 states that Andrew’s wife Agnes immigrated in 1900, but her immigration record has not yet been found. She might enter U. S. via other port, or more probably with her maiden name, which might not be Kosler, as recorded for the first time in 1905 (“Minnesota, Deaths and Burials, 1835-1990,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FD6N-WVS : accessed 2 January 2015: Agnes Kosler in entry for Babe Prosnik; father Andrew, 09 Jul 1905; citing Fayal, St. Louis, Minnesota, reference ; FHL microfilm 2,117,554). What we can be sure: she was not married to Andrew at time of her immigration in 1900, since Andrew immigrated as a single man in 1899.

To understand all questions in immigration records some history should be known. The U.S. first federal immigration law, the Naturalization Act in 1790, allowed all white males living in the U.S. for two years to become citizens. There was little regulation of immigration when the first great wave began in 1814. More Europeans began to immigrate with the passing of the Homestead Act in 1862. They were attracted by the opportunity to own land and rapid settlement of the West begun. Since 1875 prostitutes and criminals have been forbidden from entering the the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882. Restricted as well were “lunatics” and “idiots.” Anarchists were denied admittance into the U.S. as of 1903. In 1907, a federal law excluded persons with physical and mental disabilities, as well as children arriving without adults. In 1917 the literacy test was introduced, and stayed on the books until 1952: those over the age of 16 who cannot read 30 to 40 test words in their native language, were no longer admitted through Ellis Island (Nearly all Asian immigrants were banned.).

The Immigration Quota Act was inforced in 1921, fixing annual immigration from any country up to 3 percent of the total number of immigrants from a country living in the U.S. in 1910. The National Origins Act of 1924 went even further, limiting total annual immigration to 165,000 and fixing quotas of immigrants from specific countries. But by 1932, the Great Depression took hold in the U.S., and for the first time more immigrants left the country than arrived. This was the end of mass immigration.

Ellis Island falls under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument since 1965; it has been open to the public since 1976.

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